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From
the 80's to nowadays
Saint-Germain-des-Prés became the most famous village of France
in the World!
The Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots
and Lipp are its chapels. In 1983, Mr. Boubal met Mr. Silgegovisc
and his wife, their respective sensibilities corresponded perfectly.
And, at the Café, Mr. Boubal found in them the worthy successors
of this mythical place.
The Flore is said to be a "myth",
an "institution", only reserved to initiated clients.
The specters of those who frequented it, the known or not faces
of those who went there make of the Café a place which had a rich
past but integrally devoted to the present. The clients are a
subtle mix of artists, writers, intellectuals, reporters, politics,
designers, or "Great Bosses", also anonymous faithful people.
They went to the Café de Flore without having fixed any appointment.
They went there to see, to be sawn, but discretion was very important
for them. The French clients are the ones of yesterday and essentially
of nowadays. Serge Gainsbourg drank invariably a double pastis
51, which he had nicknamed a "102". Gianni Agnelli organized his
familial Parisian dinners there. With the Fiac, Francis Bacon,
sat down at a table in the Café towards the end of the morning
and stayed there until the beginning of the evening.
At the Flore, the first hours in the morning belonged to some
regular customers whose ritual didn't fear the passing of the
years, among them: Jean-Loup Sieff, Alain Ayache who ,liked saying
"Taking a coffe at the Flore makes us a little bit more intelligent".
Then, journalistic and political appointments followed.
At the Flore, no day looked like another one, even if they all
looked like each other. On the second floor, Juliette Gréco likes
dreaming, for her "At the Flore, people are less ugly than anywhere
else", not far from there, Elkabach reads his newspaper, Jean
Druker leads a lively conversation. It is there that writers like
giving their interviews, the actors fixing their appointments.
Claire Chazal goes and joins a friend of her, and chatters like
a schoolgirl. Catherine Deneuve likes the first floor and the
others equally, like her daughter, Chiara Mastroianni.
Fabrice Lucchini, as light as a feather, shows his "lunacy" under
the "Art-Deco" chandeliers of the Flore.
Bernard-Henri Lévy often has lunch at the same table, the one
on the right side under the clock. It was exactly there that sat
the members of the PCF. Arielle Dombasle, his wife, joins him
or goes with her grandmother to drink a tea later in the day when
Laurent Terzieff is yet sat at a table. Sonia Rykiel and Nathalie,
her daughter, have their table booked everyday until 1.30 pm:
if you try to sit at their table, you will be fired by the waiter.
The same privilege is shared with Danielle Thompson and her husband,
Albert Kosky, for their brunches during the week-ends, they receive,
as if they were at home, their family and their friends.
Each year, Lauren Bacall stayed a few months in Paris, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés,
and spent long moments at the Flore, she had the unique presence
of a Lady of High Society, which was sublime and discreet. But
the Flore is first of all a literary Café where writers of yesterday
and of nowadays gather: Albert Cossery, François Nourrissier,
Pierre Bourgeade, Jean d'Ormesson, Jorge Semprun, Tahar Ben Jelloun
are faithful. Just after the parution of 'L'Alchimiste", Paul
Coelho showed himself at the Flore and spent there most of his
Parisian afternoons.
Patrick Besson and Marc-Edouard Nabe like engaging in polemic
while drinking, sat around a table. Paul Bruckner and Yves Simon
converse together softly while waving to the others.
At the Flore, The American Cinema is also greatly represented:
Sharon Stone likes drinking champagne, Robert de Niro spends whole
mornings looking at people in the street, Francis Ford Coppola
declared on a French Channel that his dream was living in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
to be able to eat his breakfast at the Flore each morning (his
daughter, Sofia, is faithful). Johnny Depp doesn't have any specific
hour: early in the morning, in the middle of the afternoon or
late in the evening. In Spring, Isabella Rosselini lounges outside
in front of the Café, Jack Nicholson, smoking a cigar, takes advantage
of the first rays of the sun. Al Pacino, Tim Burton, Matt Dillon,
Harvey Keitel, Gary Oldman, Cher, Paul Auster meet there.
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